Molson XXX

In high school I was an odd one for a number of reasons. One thing that sticks out, as I obsess about hockey as I do every spring in the cusp of the playoffs, is my obsession with Canada. As a student I had a Canadian flag hanging over my bed, and I obsessed about Canadian culture from music to general culture. I applied for art colleges in Calgary, studied French, and often joined in Canadian chat rooms during the infancy of the internet for the masses.  Aside from hockey though, currently I am for the most part quite content with my home in Georgia, trading in a southern drawl for the double “O” Canadians are stereotyped with (example, about sounds like aboot). In the spirit of my previous post about hockey players’ beards, I decided I would try an example of a mass produced Canadian beer, not yet having ventured into the great white north for fermented inebriation in my 12 years of legal drinking.  

I wanted to go with a Molson “varietal” based on the prominence of their advertising in the broadcast of Canada’s national sport, and  was drawn ro XXX due to the alluring display of “Import,” “Super Premium Beer,” and most importantly “7.8% abv” on the black and silver sixer.

I’ve never had a ““Super Premium Beer” beer before, and it sounds pretty similar to “craft” so it must be good, right? (Because the internet is not the best tool to convey sarcasm, please understand I am not being serious.) So I let the beer chill, and pop the first top on the patio with my wife on this nice spring evening.

The beer pours with a fair amount of carbonation, but fails to develop more than a half finger of head, and dissipates almost immediately. The color is a straw hue, perhaps only slightly darker than urine.

The nose is very light, and has only the slightest suggestion of adjunct grains and malt.

The flavor is not much different, being very similar to any Miller/Coors/Inbev/Pabst adjunct beer, but with a pleasant fruity note, leaning towards tasting like apples. On the backend there is a nice, slight bitterness paired with a less than desired alcohol note.

Despite being advertised as a “super premium beer” there is no nothing in this beer that makes it any more or less than a standard macro beer other than its ability to get one drunk with fewer ounces of beverage.

Prost!